


Legend for a Day

by TigStripe



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Honorary Legend, Mystery, Oliver's First Time Travel, Sara's the Boss, Team Up, season 3.5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 10:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16514873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigStripe/pseuds/TigStripe
Summary: Oliver Queen has enlisted the help of the Legends to investigate the past of a friend, only to find that things are worse off than they expected.





	Legend for a Day

Oliver felt ill, like his stomach was trying to rebel. He remembered this sensation from his years of binge drinking with Tommy: all the discipline in the world couldn't help him from feeling like he was going to vomit. He looked to his left and right and saw several of the Legends in their harnesses, most of them looking almost bored, although Ray's eyes were bright and wide with excitement. How did they _not_ look like they were going to upchuck, too?

“Hang on,” Sara warned from the front of the bridge, the various monitors in front of her lighting up in warning colors as she slammed the throttle to her right. Oliver felt a more powerful lurching in his stomach and the brilliant tunnel of time flashed in dazzling lights, nearly blinding him, as the _Waverider_ appeared in a normal-looking sky.

The ship dipped down and landed in an open field, the sound of its landing gear resonating throughout the bridge. Sara sighed and detached her harness, lifting it over her head. She looked back at Oliver with an amused grin on her face. “So, whatcha think?” she asked.

Oliver didn't say anything at first. He just gripped his harness tight, staring at a fixed point on the floor as his stomach continued to flip for a few moments.

Mick chuckled at Oliver's expense. “Rookie,” he grumbled.

Sara made a face. “Ooh, sorry. Forgot to mention the side effects of your first time.” She waved a hand in front of Oliver's face, sighing when he looked up at her. “Good. You're not blind.”

Oliver shook his head. “What. Just. Happened?”

Ray grinned. “We time jumped! It wasn't too big of a jump for a first time, so the symptoms shouldn't be too bad. You wanted help, and that's what we do.” He unfastened his harness and helped him up, out of his seat. “You okay?”

Oliver burped, but nodded. “I think so.”

“It'll pass,” Nate assured him. “Cisco spewed everywhere his first time. I had to clean it up.”

“Well, we're here,” Sara announced. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

Oliver gave Sara a stern look. “I'm not _sure_ about any of this.”

“Mr. Queen's assumption seems to have hit the mark,” Gideon supplied. “There has definitely been an alteration to the timeline in 1989.”

“Pull it up, Gideon,” Sara ordered.

As everyone gathered around the center console, the projection of a newspaper article illuminated the air in front of them. The main headline read, “Arsonist Still on the Loose, Leaving 24 Dead.”

“Man after my own heart,” Mick said with a smirk. Oliver shot him a dirty look, but Mick didn't notice. Or care.

“So this arsonist is due to destroy a residential zone that directly impacts the timeline,” Ray surmised. He directed his gaze to Oliver. “When you came to us, you said Felicity was in trouble, and 'only the Legends can help.' Does her mom die in this fire?”

“According to the obituary following the incident,” Gideon said, “both Noah and Donna Kuttler died in the incident. According to the autopsy reports, Donna was unknowingly with child.”

The bridge went quiet for a moment.

“So we're saving Felicity's timeline,” Ray said, his voice strong. “Let's do it.”

“Suit up, and we'll stop this arsonist before anything bad happens to the timeline,” Oliver ordered.

No one moved. Nate, Mick, and Zari each looked over at Sara with varying degrees of uncomfortable smirks.

“Let's do this our way,” Sara said. “Sorry, Ollie. Our ship, our rules. Gotta be delicate with the timeline.” Zari snickered at this, but stopped when Sara shot her a dirty look.

Oliver said nothing, but nodded. He acknowledged Sara's logic, but giving up control of the mission to save his friend was something entirely different.

“Don't worry, Oliver,” Ray said, clapping a hand on Oliver's shoulder. “We've got this.”

 

The street was serene, with blossoming trees lining the sidewalks and children playing in the yard. The line of similarly-styled houses stretched for a quarter-mile before winding out of sight. Despite knowing, academically, that no one would recognize him, Oliver felt exposed, standing on the sidewalk with Ray and Zari. The feeling was compounded by the period-accurate clothes Sara had made him wear. His pants were... _baggy_. And Ray was wearing suspenders and a sideways baseball cap for _no reason_.

“I look like my dad's high school photos,” Oliver muttered as he slapped at the extra fabric flaring around his legs.

“Psh, you look fine,” Ray laughed. “ _I_ look like I belong in a racially insensitive sit-com.”

Zari just leered at them. “ _Shoulder pads_.”

“So the plan is just to watch for anything out of the ordinary,” Oliver confirmed. “It just feels so...passive.”

“Gotta preserve the timeline,” Zari said with a subtle, sarcastic wiggle of her head. “Interact with as few native people as possible.”

Ray led the way to the cul de sac down the road, where they stopped to sit on a bench along the sidewalk. Oliver kept his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary, but it really did seem... _boringly normal_ here. Was there really someone planning on burning down all these perfectly peaceful houses?

“Oh, are you new here?”

Ray turned to face over the back of the bench, a smile naturally finding its way across his face, but his eyes went wide in shock when he recognized the woman standing on the lawn nearby. Her long, blonde hair and bright, green eyes were both startling, but she was a vision of youth and quite sexy, to boot. Oliver took one look at her and immediately recognized her as a young Donna Smoak, currently Donna Kuttler.

Ray quickly stood to his feet, followed by Oliver and Zari. He grinned at Donna, but shook his head. “Oh, no, ma'am, we're just waiting on someone. We were told to meet up here.”

“Oh, in that case, would you all like some lemonade? It's a tad warm out today,” Donna offered with a smile. “I'll go get you some lemonade.” Without so much as a confirmation, Donna spun on her heel and gracefully hustled toward the house across the lawn.

“This just got way easier,” Zari acknowledged. “Just guard Donna and her hubby, and we're golden.”

“Seems too easy to me,” Oliver said, shifting his weight uncomfortably as he scanned the street again.

“Because it is,” Ray replied, watching Donna disappear into the house. “We know what's going to happen, which isn't _supposed_ to happen. We have to catch the arsonist, _before_ they kill anyone. They don't belong here.”

Zari idly fidgeted with her totem as she surveyed the row of houses. “I hope the others are having some luck on the other side of town.”

 

“I don't like it.”

“I know. Deal with it.”

Mick grumbled as he, Sara, and Nate waited in the lobby of a police station, hoping to catch an audience with someone with a little pull in the precinct.

“Is your gun _that_ important to you?” Nate asked from a seat against the wall.

“I feel naked without it,” Mick retorted as he paced the floor. “It's saved my bacon more than any of you.”

Sara feigned injury. “Mick, that hurts.”

Mick's pacing intensified until he let out a guttural shout. “What is _taking_ those pigs so long?”

As if on cue, the door leading further into the precinct opened to reveal an officer in full uniform, a small manila envelope in his hands. Mick rounded on the door as it opened, practically spewing steam out of his nostrils. In a flash, Nate and Sara were up, each with a hand on Mick's shoulders, holding him accountable, but not back.

“'Bout damn time,” Mick growled, his eyes fixed on the cop's face. The policemen shivered, his eyes locked on Mick's.

“I'm sorry,” he stammered, “but there's been an incident. You'll have to come back later.”

Mick's chest vibrated with a low growl, but Nate managed to pull him back. Sara, however, stepped forward, her eyes narrowed. “Incident? What incident?”

“There's been a fire,” the policeman replied, shaking the envelope in his hand. “It doesn't look like anyone was hurt, but foul play is suspected.”

Mick's eyebrow twitched. “A fire?” He smacked Sara's arm for attention. “Isn't that-”

Sara waved him quiet and looked back at the cop. “My friend here is kind of an expert at arson scenes. Mind if we tag along?”

The cop shook his head. “Civilians at a suspected crime scene? No way. I'd lose my badge.”

Sara gave a coy smirk and pulled out a small billfold from her pocket. She flipped it open to reveal an officer's badge, a la Gideon. “Good thing we're not civilians. Turns out we're on the tail of a serial arsonist, and it sounds like you just became our next scene.”

The policeman gave Mick a confused glance. “ _He_ is a cop?”

“CSI. You know how _unconventional_ they can be,” Sara replied with a wink. The cop blushed, then nodded.

The cop led the Legends to a convoy of vehicles, where they rode in the back of a car (except Mick, he opted to ride with a detective, in the _front_ seat, thank you very much) to the crime scene.

The building they stopped near was blackened, barely still standing. Part of the roof had caved in on the only floor, and the window panels were all completely missing. Sara didn't like the looks of it – it didn't look like a regular arson to her.

Mick looked the building up and down from the outside, his heart racing and his eyes wide. _This_ is what he knew, not magic or time travel.

“What do you think?” Sara asked as she and Nate joined Mick at the front sidewalk. Cops and firefighters mills about the scene, but none of them paid the three of them any mind.

“Dunno. Looks like a fire,” Mick replied without looking at either of them.

Nate just blinked. “Welp, that's it, mystery solved, time to go home,” he muttered as they approached the house.

Mick stepped into the house and began an investigation alongside the one being conducted by the police. He checked corners, walls, and ceilings, arch ways, and door frames. Soon, he returned to Sara, his face red.

“Something wrong?” Sara asked, crossing her arms. “You look like someone stole your favorite toy.”

“This wasn't a fire,” Mick snarled. “Fire did it, but it wasn't a fire.”

Nate scratched his head. “Okay, pretend we're not arson specialists, bud. What happened?”

Mick grumbled a bit before finally saying, “It wasn't natural. There's no origin. No accelerant. The fire just. _..started_.”

Sara raised an eyebrow. “Really? What does that even mean?”

“Means I can't tell you anything about this guy. The fire was wild, but not a wildfire.”

Nate pointed vaguely at Mick. “So he's upset because...”

“Professional pride,” Sara nodded in appreciation. “It's like whenever I see a body haphazardly stowed in a closet or something. It wounds me to see someone doing _my_ job so poorly. But in this case, it's like finding bits of the body magicked all over the place – something that's obviously not real, _and_ impossible for me to do.”

“I'm so glad I'm _friends_ of yours,” Nate said with a chuckle.

 

Oliver stood tall at the end of the cul de sac, his eyes watching everything he could manage. Meanwhile, Ray and Zari spoke with Donna on the bench near her house, glasses half-full of lemonade in their hands.

“Have you guys noticed anything weird going on around here, Mrs. Kuttler?” Ray asked between sips.

Donna thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No, I don't think so. Why do you ask?”

Zari rolled her eyes. “Ray here wants to be a detective and just _loves_ to 'interrogate' people for practice.”

Donna squealed a little. “Oh, dear, that's so exciting! So much better than what my lazy ass husband does.” She looked around like someone would overhear them. Ray followed suit, but no one was even close to earshot. “ _Computers_ ,” Donna whispered. She waved a hand dismissively while she gulped down some lemonade. Zari was pretty sure she could smell alcohol from Donna's direction. She smiled to herself.

“Are any of your neighbors new?” Ray asked, trying to sound more pleasant in his questioning. “There are a few empty houses, it looks like.”

Donna nodded with a little too much zeal. “There's a new guy that just moved in last week. I think he does a lot of barbecues, because we see smoke in his backyard every night, but with that privacy fence up, we just can't see what he's making. Smells pretty good, though,” she added with another big shot of lemonade.

Oliver gave Donna a sharp glance. “Barbecue? Every night?”

Donna chuckled. “Oh, probably not. I'm sure he's doing some kind of bonfire.” She leaned in to Ray again. “ _Probably to cover up some Mary Jane, if you ask me_.”

Zari smiled, holding in a laugh. Ray just blinked in feigned shock.

“That's...pretty interesting,” Ray said. “Don't you think that's interesting, Oliver?”

“That's interesting, Ray.” Oliver had returned to his vigilant survey of the street, his hands clasped behind his back.

Zari handed Donna her lemonade glass. “Well, thank you for this. It was delicious. But our friend really should be getting here soon, and we should be on a better lookout for them.” She looked at Ray. “Right, Ray?”

Ray chugged the last bit of lemonade and grinned. “Right. Thank you, Mrs. Kuttler.” He and Zari stood up from the bench. “Take care of yourself. Never know when you might be caring for two.”

Oliver Zari snapped their heads to look at Ray with panicked eyes. Ray cleared his throat.

Donna faltered for a moment, taking that in. She looked down at her lemonade, shrugged, and took a big swig. Afterwards, she stood to her feet, waved an empty glass at the three visitors, and hobbled back up the little hill to her house.

“Nice going, Ray,” Zari muttered.

Ray shrugged. “Well _we_ know she's with child, and she was clearly drinking.” He crossed his arms. “I'm not going to be the reason Felicity has a defect because her mom drank during her pregnancy.”

“All things considered, you may have helped her mom _stop_ drinking while pregnant,” Oliver said with a sigh. He looked around again. “So...privacy fence? That house, there?” He indicated a squat little house down the road a ways with a jerk of his head. Indeed, it was the only house in sight with a privacy fence, other than the Kuttlers'.

“Looks like it,” Zari agreed. “Is that enough to report back to Sara and the others?”

“I'd say so,” Ray said. He reached up and activated the communicator in his ear. “Sara? Can you hear me?”

“Loud and clear, Ray, what's going on?”

“We think we found where the arsonist is hiding out,” Ray said. “It's right down the road from Felicity's mom's place.”

“That's good news,” Sara replied. “Our news is... _less_ good.”

“What did you find out?” Oliver asked.

Sara's voice was low and serious. “Our arsonist is a metahuman.”

 


End file.
